Mommy & Daddy...

I was eighteen when Bethany was born; Angie was eighteen, too. When Bethany was one and a half she said "Daddy!" When she was two she said "Daddy, Mommy, Wolf, Bobbog, Fred!" She was quite intelligent for her tender age. She was walkin', and of course, as every parent knows, with walkin' comes trouble, and she had plenty of that in her terrible twos.

For our 5th anniversary of marriage, we had a special dinner of chicken and olives, in our newly built cabin. In most families, the woman cooks, but in this family we both cooked. Not to brag, but I am a fairly good cook; so is Angie.

A Visitor...

One day as I looked out across the lake, as the sun went down, I noticed someone. Someone in the woods. I grabbed me rifle an' plodded off to git that prowler. It was a man dressed in gray rags. He had hazel eyes, a worn out red 'n' white striped shirt. His feet were bare, his hair a dusty brown. His whole body was covered with dried mud, and his torn hat had dust all over it. I pointed me rifle. He spit on the ground, 'cause he had been chewing tobbaca. "All right, stick 'em up," I says. He raised his hand sluggishly.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"That is not of any importance." "What were ya's doin' behind m' cabin?"

"I was hungry, I was gonna ask ya all if I could have some o' that chicken o' yours."

"No, ya was gonna steal from us." "No I's wasn't!"

"Well, if ya's weren't, ya's can have one." I gave him one.

A Doe and a Fawn...

One week after we had our "visitor" we had two more! But this time they were not human. They were deer, a doe and a fawn - the doe was wounded.

There was blood everywhere, especially on her leg, where she had been wounded by a mountain lion. The doe and her fawn had wobbled into our property on a rainy night in December, two days before Christmas. We found them huddled close to the fireplace (where we were having a fire). On the next morning we found them and brought them in to clean them up. We dressed the doe's wound and fed both of them. We named the fawn Christmas and the doe Coco, because he like hot cocoa.

Christmas came, and with it came warm tender happiness and family forgiving. Angie gave me a new knife, which she made herself. I gave her a needle and thread, an' eight yards of the finest silk (which I had t' go into town and trade two chickens for). And the best present of all was each other's love. Bethany got a wooden rocking horse. Wolf and Fred got cooked carrots, Bobbles got fresh prairie grass, and so did Christmas and Coco.